An Automotive Lane Guidance System

Abstract: Automotive lane guidance systems, usually referred to as Lane Keeping Aid or Lane Keeping System, are designed to prevent or warn the driver of lane departure. They typically use a buzzer to alert the driver or a steering wheel torque to actually steer the vehicle back into the center of the lane. Emergency Lane Assist (ELA) combines conventional lane guidance systems with a threat assessment module that tries to activate the lane guidance interventions according to the actual risk level of lane departure. The goal is to only prevent dangerous lane departure manoeuvres.Such a threat assessment algorithm is dependent on detailed information about the vehicle surroundings, i.e., positions and motion of other vehicles, but also information about road and lane geometry parameters such as lane width and road curvature. The thesis demonstrates that the lane estimate can be improved by using an integrated filter that combines information from object and lane tracking. This is done by introducing a road aligned, curved coordinate system which also brings other advantages when it comes to modelling and prediction.Evaluation of the integrated tracking system has been carried out on real data and the ELA decision algorithm has been tested in a demonstrator. ELA successfully distinguishes between dangerous and safe lane changes ona small set of test scenarios and is, if activated, able to take control of the vehicle and put it in a safe position in the original lane.